I think that very often statements made, esp. by metaphysicians, may seem contradictory until you realize that they are often speaking from more that one or diverse point of views.

One P.O.V. is from Spirit (or the transcendent and eternal), whereas the other POV is from the jiva (or the human and finite). These are different dimension all together, although taking place quite simultaneously.

In the beginning when starting out on this path to the Ultimate, we try to do it like it is all about our own self-improvement. We try to make our more human self simply mimic our More Spiritual Self. But this is a little like a child might dress up in mommy’s clothes, or just pretend.

Realization of Spirit, (or our own True Self), is more about discovery than actually changing in some way.

When we try to smash these two dimensions together, finitude being dualistic or 2, and Eternity being non-dualistic and represented (for convenience) as the One, we don’t get 3. What we actually get is confusion.

This is because Eternity and finitude are simultaneous, but in no way identical dimensions.

Leslie, I have read what you've written over & over again to come within some common ground of thought processing. Yet, your statement appears, from my perspective, as completely contradictory as the concept of duality (if I may use that term as one concept in opposition to another.)

I do agree to your oceanic metaphor; seeing mind/thought as temporary. I use temporary in the aspect of changing. Where upon, the mind can advance and progress within perspective. Yet, there are particular concepts within a healthy mind, based upon this touchstone or "core" that I speak of as unchangeable.

I will not progressively move beyond the thought that intentional antagonistic behavior is right in any way, nor that particular concepts I've read within these pages such as "evil" is "live" spelled backwards or "God" is dog spelled backwards. Evil is as entity within itself (created within), and dogs, albeit loyal & often gifting, are animals and a species of a lower life form.

So although particular thoughts "should" move through like a silent wave across the ocean without becoming a part of the ' collective consciousness,' thus not becoming a part of that ocean;

"each particle of DNA, like grains of sand (paraphrasing, excuse me), also contains memory; often debris, such as these two conceptualized and collectively collaborated concepts mentioned above, that need to be washed away, disposed of, or deleted.

But yet, they (particles of DNA) are born of memory, thereby live and grow within our physical being once seeded and watered repeatedly.

DailyOm has brought to light another metaphorical concept for me, of window boxes. Where soil is encased, without ground, particular seeds are planted, then watered and nurtured, so they can be viewed, enjoyed and controlled within a box.

The most-keen and enlightened advice I have received since venturing into this house with many windows; window boxes overflowing with wildflowers, is to press delete buttons. So that is what I've been doing this past.year; pressing delete buttons.

Oddly enough, it was something you had written that aided me in my quantum leap through this window and out of this box, homeward. You wrote, (again paraphrasing, excuse me), "the closer one gets to their truth, the narrower the road."

It's been a painfully horrific journey, and I'm more than thankful to be back home again; back to my origins.

Now I can wish everyone good tidings, upon each his own journey. I can peak in & visit once in awhile, and possibly share another voice, without receiving any seeds.

It is actually a little like when a friend is in physical pain, you can sit right next to them and not actually literally feel the physical pain also, not really.

That concept fascinated me as a child, my having a desperately ill father. Perhaps it is only because we have felt loss or felt pain ourselves that we can even understand what they are feeling.

To me words are a little like photographs. (Tools) If you can once get a pretty good picture of what is taking place, you have a far better chance of understanding life in general as well as in the particular.

When Solomon sent the mother grieving for loss of her dead child out to find a family that hadn’t had such a loss, he wasn’t just trying to get her busy.

Rather, it was through understanding the lay of the land…just how very ubiquitous loss and death were, that she could begin to heal through perspective.

I think that recovery often comes through incorporation. I am not sure that actually getting over it (putting it behind us) is necessary. “Sadder, but wiser” may work very nicely in some cases. Esp. if you use any tragic loss as an impetus to reach out and to help others.

I'm currently experiencing heartbreak in a secondhand way. One of the friends, a man, has lost someone he thought was his "forever woman". Everything seemed perfect. Then, she left the relationship without saying goodbye. These are hard -- when someone leaves without an explanation and the one who is left has to try and figure out why. Or else, not figure it out, but be left with a puzzling loss.

The other friend, a woman, had a beloved pet die. We went to the vet yesterday. Time to say goodbye and It was heartbreak. I don't know if it was any easier for her to have someone else there. I doubt it.

And, I don't know which of these will recover sooner. I think the man is the tougher of the two, the stronger. The loss for the woman friend is the most clear cut. She knows why the loss happened.

See this is the thing. Some people feel that Spirit is an epi-phenomenon of the mind, (a more scientific idea). Whereas some of us, me included, have witnessed that Spirit is actually transcendent of the mind and not an outcropping of thought processes.

Spirit being (metaphorically speaking) more like the ocean and the mind/body being more like a wave that temporarily plays across the ocean, both coming up from and going back into the ocean without actually changing the ocean itself in any way.

Someone once said (speaking of grains of sand) that each grain of sand contains the whole universe within it sort of like a universal DNA. So that although each grain of sand many seem separate unto itself, at the same time the idea of separation is actually a myth. In the end, the seeming variations are simply supported by our particular POV at any given time.

Or as Carl G. Jung has suggested, parts of us are manifested like femaleness, and parts of us are submerged like maleness, within any given individual depending. Yet all of these possibilities are present and available within all of us simultaneously.

So many amazing perspectives. Really enjoying the variations. I believe Suci stated something I strongly believe; it's personal. There are as many intricacies in the human condition, as there are grains of sand.

Personally my perspectives have leaned toward science. Not that spirit is anything other than energy plugged into intelligence?

The mind; that conscious energy that says, "I exist," may be perceived as a dream or even maya, an illusion by some. But when understanding the conversion of energy to matter, one begins to master the notion that thing conscious mind that I am, may just have mastered the ' notion' of converting energy to matter. And thereby I matter because I am.

Having stated as such, I will either go with my strongly held beliefs as such. Or if more comforting for anyone, I will assume this part within our collective dream.

I just enjoyed a peppermint mocha. How grand! It was anabolic matter until I choose to consume of it, now my miraculous vessel, by means of the captain or controller (brain), is now converting the energy of that pepperment mocha as a catalyst, into becoming me! And the gentleman next to me says, "Oh, that's very becoming of you. You wear it well!" :*)

So many of us believe that if I think it, it must be true. Why would I lie to myself? I should listen to my thoughts. I should honor them by adapting to their requests, or assessments. But this idea of personal thought being true thought simply is not the case all of the time. We (like little children) are being gullible and buying into just anything.

I say it is a big part of wisdom to make every single one of our thoughts prove them selves in practice. If they are not bringing you happiness, then chuck them.

Like the old sayings go, "Sometimes we are our own worst enemy." Or "With friends like that (me against myself) who needs enemies?"

Ask someone you know that is basically happy, "What are you thinking about this particular subject?" Chances are very good that it isn't what you are thinking.

Some people do choose to be weak and afraid even when given the opportunity to learn something else.
I think it has to do with fear of losing one's self if one allows change within. Some people have their identity all tied up in particular behaviors or beliefs. Changing that would be akin to death of a vital self.

For some of the abused women I have worked with, living without that excitement, danger, and chaos would be just too deadly boring...so they try the quiet life for a while and choose to go back into the exciting miserable relationship. Working domestic violence can be the most exacerbating of all the categories.

this is very helpful. I like how it breaks down the truth and gives me suggestions to imagine and visualize. I can complicate things so quickly. The impulsive behavior is like an energy coming from way within me and it drives me hard. I so want to let that go, I'm tired of it.

Yes, we are given and make the choice what to take and whether or not to take it, and how to use it.

Sara Teasdale says:

"Life has loveliness to sell."
She goes on:
"Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be."

Victor Frankl was a great man and his wonderful little book, “Man’s search for Meaning, was life changing for me.

Q: “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
Victor Frankl

He showed me very clearly that there are some very great men among us, and often they can best shine their light like a beacon for us in the most horrible of circumstances.

He is not alone in thinking that attitude is our last and best freedom. Many other great thinkers have also believed this. I, on the other, hand do not agree with this assessment.

Granted that we have always got choice and attitude, but then again, how much of that is actually built right into our personal destiny? Or said differently, how far can we stray from who and what we are? Even change may actually be built right in, and only manifest as choice.

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

I've been reading some of your posts - and in my opinion, some are talking about 'situations.' We always have a choice - ALWAYS! Maybe not about a situation of where we are, what our financial circumstances are, who we're with, but we always, always have a choice about how we relate to it all. Do we choose to fight it or accept it. This Universe is in partnership with us and we make a call, and the Universe delivers. We are just not aware of the call we are making. If we call and say - 'Hello Universe, I really love feeling joyful.' And the Universe says, 'are you sure?' Of course my response is 'yes!. The Universe responds with - 'ok, here's a situation you can feel joyful, and here's another! The present is pre-sent. Another call could be 'hello Universe' - I really hate feeling invalidated.' And the Universe responds, 'Are you sure?' 'Yes, I'm sure!' Ok - here's a situation where you can hate feeling invalidated, and here's another.... and so on and so on. So our intention is always carried out - situationally, however, our experience of the situation is always up to us.

Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor, said we always have choice; maybe not without limitation., but we have the choice of how we want to be, even in the direst of circumstance.

All of us here on earth are like blind persons stumbling around in the dark trying to make sense of what we are bumping into, (what is going on, and possibly even where we are going…and the unanswerable question “why”), with the inadequate tools we have been given (or our 6 senses including the mind.) We call our limited understandings beliefs.

I don’t know how we can completely cleanse ourselves of belief, as we are forced by nature to act “as if” we knew what we were doing and what we are doing, in order to move and survive.

Every single day many of us go out and get in a car to drive somewhere with the belief that we will arrive.

We pay our mortgage or rent believing that we will live long enough to need a roof over our heads.

While absolutely everything is up in the air.

Our larger belief systems are in good part a work in progress, and with a healthy mind these too are open to revision when and if new information reveals its self to us.

All we can say in true honest with our selves, about most of our beliefs, is “So far.”

Of course, many of us have our old favorite beliefs, things that were told to us when sitting on daddy’s knee, and finding them dear in some way we much prefer to hold onto them if they aren’t hurting anyone.

Proof? Well we have the scientists (our modern day priests) for that. But then, they certainly seem to change their stories quite frequently.

Q: Anthony De Mello said, "Every one seems to want to hold onto something (for that feeling of stability); until they realize that everything they grab onto is falling with them."

The only thing hardcore with me is Spirit. As I have seen that Spirit is the unchangeable and the essential ground on which I stand, my "ISness."

Since I feel too that God is Spirit and I am also Spirit, or the One, how can I resent this other guy called god who seems to be pushing me around in this dream world and making me do dream things?

If you do not identify with this dream person, your ego self, it is rather more like watching a movie or reading a book, a bit more vicarious than personal.

Resentment and anger over how the story or dream is going doesn’t make much sense outside of being a bad habit.

Whose system is right, and whose is wrong. Does it matter if it is just a dream?